Fall 2026

The Dark Side of the Universe: the Great Cosmic Mysteries From Black Holes to Dark Energy

ASTRON 170 explores the nature of black holes, dark matter, and dark energy, covering spacetime warping and cosmic acceleration.

no offering record for this termCredits unavailable
Recorded instructors · Fall 2026 No instructors listed

Summary

1 / 5

Historical reviews of Christy Tremonti: Exams are long-answer and require memorization and outside effort, while quizzes are easy and group projects vary in difficulty based on teammates.

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

None

  • None
ASTRON 170

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • None

Professors

Fall 2026

No instructors recorded for this selection.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

Historical reviews of Christy Tremonti: Christy Tremonti is described as caring and an amazing professor, though students report significant course structure challenges. Reviewers note that asynchronous lectures and unguided group discussions can leave students disadvantaged when struggling with concepts. While some find the content interesting and worth taking, others criticize the heavy memorization required and lack of guidance.

CHRISTINA TREMONTI is recorded teaching in Fall 2019, Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Fall 2023. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Fall 2026

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections.

Meeting source records

No records available.

Student experience

the class

Historical reviews of Christy Tremonti: Christy Tremonti is praised as caring and engaging, though the course format and exam difficulty create mixed experiences for students.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2023: 3.17 GPA, 48.9% A/AB (n=47 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.51 GPA, 85.7% A/AB (n=49 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.13 GPA, 48.8% A/AB (n=43 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Historical reviews of Christy Tremonti: Exams are long-answer and require memorization and outside effort, while quizzes are easy and group projects vary in difficulty based on teammates.

Historical reviews of Christy Tremonti: Students report frustration with unguided group discussions, delayed grading, and poor email responsiveness, though some find the content interesting and worth taking.

Topics

  • Black holes, dark matter, and dark energy
  • Warping of spacetime
  • Plasma beams around black holes
  • Acceleration of the cosmos
  • Birth and fate of the universe

Grades

Latest available · Spring 2026— not enough history to project Fall 2026.

average GPA
A / AB grades
letter grades
Instructor

Grade distribution · % of letter grades

A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

Grades over time

Through Spring 2026

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2026 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1283 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

Download part 1
Selected offering source records

No offering records for the selected term.

Raw records 
[]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
Download part 1
Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-09-07

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
nvidia/Qwen3.6-35B-A3B-NVFP4
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "nvidia/Qwen3.6-35B-A3B-NVFP4",
  "model_revision": "1355db6a052410cfd62085d94b58866fd0f2c3c5",
  "task_version": "14",
  "output_id": "bc558e236e8ce2683e1edc45c80485dcd8c5ba9e6c16cf54ad444a233f36618b",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "e243353dcb7d79b7247ced91d69443ef4c2a6349",
  "observed_at": "2026-09-07 15:55:43.033547+00:00"
}